=0)

r^racticaland^lrfistic
Suggestions
NK
2115
H55
1918
c.l
ROBARTS
The
House
Beautiful
PARK STREET
BOSTON
Presented to the
LIBRARY
of
the
UNIVERSITY
OF TORONTO
by
DOUGLAS RICHARDSON
INSIDE OF THE HOUSE
Practical and artistic
suggestions
S E 1. E C T E D R E 1' R I N T S
1 R M
House
Reautiful
HOUSE BEAUTIFUL PUBLISHING
COMPANY
Staircase in Mr. Little's house as viewed from the
living-room. The detail is well shown. Observe the twisted newel post
and
the three different
designs
in the balusters. The wall
papers
are in characteristic
harmony
with the
type.
. .
LITTLE HOLME"
THE HOUSE WHICH THE
ARCHITECT,
MR. HARRY B.
LITTLE,
HAS BUILT FOR HIMSELF
AT
CONCORD,
MASSACHUSETTS
By
EDWARD G. REED
LITTLE
HOLME," Concord,
is first and foremost the
house of an architect for himself. It is
unique among
modern
country
houses in its
design
and unusual in its set-
ting.
It stands on a
high plateau
in Concord well out from the
center of the
town,
and not far from the banks of the historic
Assabett. Instead of
building
in the broad
open portion
of the
plateau,
the architect has set it in a
clearing
made for the
purpose
in the
pine
woods a most
inviting, sunlit, green grass plat nestling
down
among
the
high pines,
with an
irregular
wood
edge
of ferns
and rhododendrons.
The whole
house, exteriorly
and
interiorly, is,
in fact a studied and
scholarly interpretation
of the
spirit
and
technique
of the
pre-colonial
style
done with most
loving
care for
every
detail of the old work.
Yet the whole scheme much more ambitious than
precedent
af-
fords in the
period
from which the
inspiration
was drawn is so
freely
handled that there is no
suggestions
of archaic
copyism ;
it is
just
a
thoroughly
modern
country
house of
truly
colonial
aspect,
with all the added charm and distinction that come from the
many
quaint
and severe touches of the
very
old
style
in which the archi-
tects choose to work.
The whole front is focused at the front door a
very picturesque
old-time
doorway,
with its
bull's-eye top light,
its
broken,
curved
pediment,
and
large forged copper pineapple surmounting
it.
The entrance to the house is into a
square vestibule,
from which a
broad vaulted
passage
tunnels
right through
the massive central
chimney
into the stair hall which runs off to the left at
right angles
to the
entrance,
instead of the more usual colonial treatment of
having
the stairs block one end of the hall. This allows a
garden
entrance at the end of the hall
directly opposite
the front
door,
giving
a
charming
vista out into the old-fashioned
garden
the mo-
ment one enters the house. The
garden
entrance of broad French
doors floods the staircase with
light.
The stairs are a rich
example
of an old colonial
staircase,
with a twisted newel
post,
balusters
that
vary
in three different
designs
on each
tread, mahogany
stair
treads,
as well as handrail and wainscot
cap.
The hardware of
the hall is
interesting,
and consists as does all that
throughout
the
house,
of
quaint
old brass or iron thumb
latches,
and
handwrought
iron
'
'strap hinges.
' '
There are old black iron
hinges running
clear
across the front
door,
and an old brass box lock with a
huge key.
The
living
room is a
large
low room with white wainscots and cor-
nice,
with an all white fire
breast,
and the softest of old-fashioned
gray striped papers
on the wall. The
hangings
and
upholstery
are
of soft dull
green.
Needless to
say
the furniture in this room as
throughout
the
house,
fits in
perfectly
with the old-timeness'
'
of
the scheme. A
sun-porch living-room
leads off this
living-room
through
French doors.
The old
secretary
is to be observed as a
very good piece
of furniture.
The
legs
of the table also and the chair are unusual.
The hall toward the door a fine and free
copy
of the old doors which
were three
panels
wide.
FOUR DOOMS BY SAMUEL McINTIRE
A
doorway
in the Pierce-Johonnot-
Nichois
house, Salem, built in 1800.
A
comparison
of the doors on this
page
is an
interesting study
in archi-
tectural detail for which Mclntire
had an
exquisite
sensitiveness.
Inside of the front door of the Pierce-
Johonnot-Nichols house in Salem,
l.uilt in 1782. This
fanlight
is de-
lightful,
and with the fluted
pilasters
and the
eight panels,
has the
general
effect of an Adam
feeling.
In Feb-
ruary.
1915. we showed the outside
of this door.
Samuel Mclntire
designed nearly
all of the best
houses in Salem from 1782 to 1811. To him is
due our
heritage
of classic
workmanship
still to
be seen in that town ; yet
he never went
abroad,
and
gained
all he knew from books, and from the
shipbuilders
and
carpenters
of Salem. The free-
dom with which he
adapted
the work of
foreign
masters to native conditions
may
have been
largely
due to his
being
almost
entirely self-taught.
In
an article on Mclntire
by
Walter A.
Dyer
in the
February, 1915,
number of The House
litauliful,
Mr.
Dyer says,
"
In one sense Mclntire never he-
came a
great
architect. His houses are
mostly
the
square, three-story
mansions of the
period
that leave much to be desired in the
way
of
grace
and
variety.
His fame rests rather on the
beauty
of the embellishments of these houses their
doorways,
window frames, cornices, gate-posts,
and
their
incomparable
interior woodwork." The
woodwork was almost
invariably
made of white
pine,
abundant in New
England
and excellent for
carving.
te&^**
a
*'
mump
These details are of the first
door on this
page.
Notice
the
charming
variation be-
tween the rosette in the cen-
ter of the
loop
of carved
flowers and the convention-
alized rosette in the cornice.
Doorway
at "Oak Hill," Peabody,
built in
1800, one of Mclntire's finest
examples.
The medallion of a basket
of fruit and flowers in the
plain space
over the door is
very lovely.
The Cook-Oliver house in
Salem, in
which is this
doorway,
was built in
1799. This
is, perhaps,
Mclntire's
most famous house.
Expense
was
not
considered,
and he
placed
here
some of his finest interior woodwork
and
carving.
The furniture in this
living-room
is in
keeping
with the
style
of house, without
heing affectedly correct, and is
well
arranged
in the room.
The
paneling
of the
dining-room
is
especially good
and follows
precedent closely but not
slavishly. Mahogany
furniture
has an excellent foil in the white painted walls.
The architect first saw the house when the snow was
deep
around it. I he corn barn which settled down behind the house as a laundry.
A HOUSE THAT GREW AT W N A L A N C E
T,
N. H
A House Remodeled
by
a Woman for a Woman How it Marched
up
a Hill
and
Obligingly
Broke in Two and Grew More 1 lomelike With Every Change
By
LOIS L. 1IOWH, T 1 1 E ARCHITECT OF THE HOUSE
Tho L was turned to follow the curve of the hill and
dropped ^ feet to follow the
slope.
The house was moved from the side to the
top
of
the knoll.
Plan of the
house before
alteration.
The L was torn off and moved down some distance
The little house was built in the
early years
of the
nineteenth
century.
Not in the "best
period,"
it had
no
panelling
nor beautiful
details,
but it retained the
typical
New
Kngland plan
with a
big chimney
in the
middle. The stairs, however, instead of
going up
straight against
the
chimney
close to the front door
were in the back corner and
they
led
only
to an un-
finished attic where the rafters were round
logs,
some
of them with the bark still on.
1 ts new owner found it and
bought
it in the summer
but the architect saw it first when the snow was
deep
around
it, so
deep
that it was
scarcely possible
to tell
what the
problems
and
possibilities
of
grading might
he.
Eventually, however,
it was moved a few
yards
from the side of the lit tie knoll on which it stood to the
top. By
the next autumn it was a
cosy place enough
fora bachelor maid and her
girl
friends. The Bache-
lor Maid
planned
to have a model farm, so a corn
barn was built on the Intervale.
-I
I
I-""*""* J-
1
^
After the first
alteration.
The house and the
plan
in its final trans-
formation. The L
has
grown
and the
kitchen is connected
with the house
by
a
very long pantry.
On one side of the
dining-room
is a
big fireplace,
and the walls of that side are
panelled
from floor to
ceiling. Heavy
timbers were
necessary
to
span
the width and these are
cased in and show as beams across the
ceiling.
The side of the
living-room
that has a door and a
group
of
windows opening
on the covered
piazza.
A room that has a
great
deal of home-like charm.
And then she ceased to be a Bachelor Maid,
and for
several
years
the
place
was rented; but the time came when
it
proved
to be the best
place possible
for another
young
bachelor
girl
to
spend
her summers in,
and the
place began
to
grow.
At first, it was
only
the
garden
which was
enlarged.
Then the corn barn
solemnly
climbed the hill and settled
down behind the house as a
laundry.
I hen one summer a
week of continuous rain showed that it was
altogether
too
restricted for
guests
and their attendant husbands in
wet weather
they
were under foot! And the three serv-
ants from the city were
cramped
in the
quarters
which
had done
very
well for the one
"general."
So the architect
came
again, and,
this time,
resorted to heroic measures.
The L was torn off
bodily
and moved some distance from
the house, and then turned to follow the crest of the hill
and
dropped
about
3
feet to follow the
slope.
A new
dining-room
was built to connect the house and the L and,
as this was
bigger
than
any
of the other rooms, its floor
was made on a lower level while its
ceiling
was
kept
at that
of the main house. It is entered
by
two broad
steps
at one
corner.
The little
writing-room
has become the entrance hall,
and the L has
grown;
indeed the whole house has
grown
and
grown
and the end is not
yet!
The little
writing-room
has become the en-
trance hall; "carriage" company
now comes
through
a
garden
with a low wall
dividing
it
from a hollow in the hill.
A bit of the view that is seen from the
casement windows of the
dining-room
a
vista of a
garden
walk and, past
the birch
trees, the distant mountains.
This bedroom for a child was also
designed by women, the Misses Harlow
and Howland of Boston. No child with a desk like this one could
keep
from
being
a
prompt correspondent.
The
peacocks
in the cretonne are
repeated
in the decorations of the
pretty
four-poster,
and the wall
paper
is so
delicately "sprigged"
that it does not
conflict with the cretonne.
THE ENTRANCE HALL AND MORNING ROOM IN MR. SHAW'S APARTMENT HAVE
PANELED
WALLS, PAINTED IN FRENCH
GRAY, WITH
MANTEL-SHELF,
FURNITURE, AND CONSOLE IN WALNUT.
The
dining-room
walls are all
plain
Bedford stone from floor to
ceiling.
The
side-board, table, chest,
and
chairs were
designed
for the room. The table is the
long
narrow
English shape.
The
fireplace
is a modern
one,
carved on Gothic lines from Mr. Shaw's
design
in the same Bedford stone as
the walls. On the walls are five
tapestries
of Gothic or
early
Renaissance
design.
PLAGES FOR CLOTHES AND TOYS
A
glimpse
of the
toy
shelves in the
nursery
of Mrs. G. H. Len-
thold of Deer
Park, Washington.
The
delightful
frieze in the same
nursery.
If one likes to stand while at work,
the German
plan
for dress-
ing
the
baby
is
very good.
It
provides
a painted wooden chest
about
thirty
inches high
with drawers and
compartments to hold
all the
garments
and toilet
things.
On
top
is a thick soft
pad
covered with Turkish
toweling
on
which the
baby
is laid to be dressed. A
sliding
shelf on one
end holds the toilet basket.
A well planned clothes-and
dressing-closet
for a child. The
drawers
may
be used for wash dresses or bed linen.
This chest, placed
in the bathroom or nursery,
is useful later
for a child's bureau or for extra drawer
space.
No little head could
bump
itself
very
hard on this crib with its
quilted
This solves the
problem of how to
play
on the beach without
going
near
and
flowery pads.
A
homey
chcrm characterizes this work. the water. Here are nine little
permanent playmates
for the lone child.
CHILDREN'S
Quilting designs
from
The
Quilting Bee, Rye,
New York.
OWN PAGE
Toys
and furniture de-
signed by
Miss Helen
Speer.
This
seesaw,
with the circus
elephant
underneath instead of on
top,
can't
slip. Rompers
manufacturers
approve highly
of these slide-down chutes.
One
may buy patterns for these
toys
and this
furniture,
or
they
can
be
bought
knocked
down,
or
entirely finished.
A
"baby pen" with Chinese counters that would afford endless
amusement,
and a
hobby-horse
that looks as sportive
as he is safe.
A COMMUNITY
TEA-HOUSE
A SIMPLE CLUBHOUSE FOR WOMEN IN VILLAGES OR THE REAL COUNTRY
ONE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF HOW TO BRING NEW INTERESTS AND HUMAN CONTACT INTO THE LIFE OF
THE FARMER'S WIFE
BY WALTER A. DYER
T:
|HE
roadside tea-house,
"
quaint,"
"charming,"
"so artistic," "per-
fectly dear,"
and
yielding
a
greater
or less financial return
to its
enterprising owner,
has become a
familiar
sight,
at least in the East. It is
an
expression
of twentieth
century
femin-
ism,
one of the
ways
in which women have
discovered that
they
could
compete
suc-
cessfully
with men in commercial life.
Your
college graduate
or ex-school teacher
or
naturally gifted lady
of
penurious
leis-
ure builds a
bungalow
of
cypress,
stained
brown or
green,
or renovates an old shin-
gled cottage,
and
plants
a crimson rambler
beside the door. She furnishes it
inexpen-
sively
with
rag rugs,
stained chairs and
tables, table ferns and a
plate-rail,
and an
obvious color scheme. She
hangs
out a
sign,
sets the kettle over to
boil,
and waits
for the
passing
automobile or the bored
resident of the summer hotel. She also
runs a
gift shop, putting
in a
consignment
of tinted
photographs,
arts-and-crafts
goods,
and "novelties." If her muffins and
tea and
Sally
Lunns and Waldorf salad
are
very good,
and she has chosen a fortu-
nate location,
some one will come
along
with a camera some
day
and she will be
Here
you may
have
your
tea indoors or on the
piazza
The
large bay
window on the
piazza
is
inviting
on
stormy days,
and
by
late summer the vines will
have
spread
over the timber-latticed roof
written
up
for the woman's
page,
and will
live
happily
ever after.
Now the kind of tea-house I am
going
to
tell about is different from that. It
may
look
something
like the color-scheme kind
in
fact,
it
frankly
borrows all the
popu-
lar and
profitable
features it can but it
is based on a different motive and lives for
a different end. I mean a tea-house that
shall serve the needs of a rural
community,
furnishing
at once a social center for the
neighbors
and an outlet for their daintier
products.
It would do
many
a farmer's
wife a world of
good
if she had somewhere
to
go
in the slack hour of the afternoon
besides the tiresome kitchens of her hard-
workingneighbors,
and her ambition would
be stirred to action
by
the
opportunity
to
earn a little
money.
It is the old economic
problem
of
bring-
ing
the
producer
and consumer nearer to-
gether,
and of the social
question
of how
to
get
urban and rural life into closer con-
tact. The
city's
mouth waters for the
country cooking,
and cannot
get it;
Mrs.
Lakeside would
give
$100 for a hand-made
quilt
such as Aunt Philena used to make.
The automobile has
brought
these two
extremes nearer
together,
but has not
quite bridged
the
gap.
The
occupants
of
the tonneau
glance
out
admiringly
at the
old white farmhouse behind its
big
lilac
bushes,
and catch a whiff of incense from
the kitchen stove, and whiz
past
never
dreaming
that the cornmeal
drop-cakes
apply definitely
to the
community
institu-
tion of which we have been
speaking.
The
lady
who started The
Hanging
of
the Crane found a little old red house for
sale in a
good
location at the side of a
BS&
^4-
'^^
"**
Annual and
perennial
vines made this house attractive at once
that Mrs. Meekins is
frying
would taste a
hundred times better lo them than the
hotel luncheon
they
are headed for.
The kind of tea-house I have in mind
would
bridge
this
gap. Motorist, pedes-
trian, cottager,
and
rocking-chair
invalid
would find their
way thither,
or be arrested
by
the
swaying sign.
Here
they
would find
and
pay
a
good price
for the fruit
cake and
ginger
bread and cookies and
doughnuts
and rusk that have been famous
at church
suppers
on the hill for a
quarter
of a
century.
A woman's
exchange
could
be established on the usual
lines, selling
on commission
preserves,
baked
products,
candy, rag rugs,
and
country
needlework
of all kinds. The
city
would come to the
country
to
buy,
as is
proper,
and the coun-
try
would receive the stimulus of a fair
reward for its labor and skill.
Now I do not
happen
to know of ex-
actly
this sort of
community tea-house,
and doubt if
my
ideal
exists,
but there
is one tea-house which is near
enough
to
it in character to serve as an illustra-
tion and as evidence that the idea is not
visionary.
The
Hanging
of the Crane is a
privately
managed
tea-house at
Manchester, Mass.,
but it has been
operated largely
on a
cooperative neighborhood
basis. There
are some features in its conduct which
much-traveled road. She cleaned
up
the
old
garden
and turned it into a
flowery
retreat. She screened in a
porch
for use as
a tea-room in warm weather. The
dining-
room and
living-room
were thrown to-
gether and the old
fireplace
restored to
usefulness. Paint and
wall-paper
did the
rest.
The walls of the main room were
scraped
and tinted a
pumpkin yellow.
The stand-
ing
trim was
painted white and the floors
yellow.
The
furnishings
are
largely
old-
fashioned in character braided
rag rugs,
a
mahogany
tea table or
two, rush-bot-
tomed chairs, fn one corner was
placed
a
show-case. Two attractive
patterns
were
chosen for the
china, one
showing
a
bright
bluebird.
The veranda and
upstairs
rooms were
also
given
a colonial touch. The
kitchen,
however,
is
distinctly modern, and made
practical by
means of electric
appliances.
On the hill back of the house a
simple,
square
summerhouse was
erected, with
screened windows on four sides. This
accommodates four or live additional
tables. The entire cost of
remodeling
and
furnishing (very
little new furniture was
bought)
was less than S300,
including
the
summerhouse.
The
Hanging
of the Crane was a success
from the first as a tea-house. II made a
specialty
of nut-bread and home-made ice
cream and cake, and on
Saturday night,
Boston baked beans and brown bread.
But it has done more than
that; it has
opened
an outlet for the
cookery
and hand-
icraft of a number of women in the
neigh-
borhood and
presents
an
opportunity
for
the
people
of town and
country
to meet.
A room that is
inexpensive
and homelike
W/r.W'.WX.'-A'A'-/: /'."A",
Qopyrlffhttd t'V Frank Cousins Art Co.
The fresco of shell
design
in the
dining-room
of the Boston Women's
City
Club is
probably equaled
in few Boston houses.
The
guests' lounge.
The ancient brick
ovens, crane, and other accessories of the kitchen have been
preserved.
In mass and detail heavier and more
vigorous
than the house beside which it is
placed,
this cottage designed by Derby
and
Robinson has
enough
character of its own to stand the close relation with the larger building.
In the
cottage kitchen,
flour and
sugar
in buckets attached inside the
larger cupboard
doors are swung
out for use and at
once replaced out of the
way.
Glazed
cupboards
are
handy
to sink and stove.
AN OLD FIREPLACE IN HINGHAM
THIS IS THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND MEASURED DRAWINGS OF
PANELING,
MANTELS, MOULDING, ETC.,
IN HOUSES BUILT A CENTURY OR MORE AGO
HINGHAM
is
justly proud
of its valuable traditions and its his-
toric houses. From the
years
1633 and 1634, when the first
settlers made their homes in this little cove, its
history
has
always
been more or less
intimately
connected with the
history
of our
country,
at first, linked with the
history
of the other
early
colonies and since then not without
important
relations to the
history
of the commonwealth and the nation.
Many
of these historic houses have been well
preserved
to us
by
the
pious
care of the descendants of those who built them
more than two hundred
years ago.
And in
many
of these home-
of the builder rather than the result of studious efforts for
effects, all of which contribute to the
beauty
of the room.
The
simple
mantel,
composed chiefly
of
large boards, very
restful in the absence of ornament and
mouldings,
a mantel
easily reproduced
and with
equally good
effect at small
expense
in
many
of our modern houses. In connection with the
mantel,
note the
simple
brick treatment of the
long hearth, the
propor-
tions of the
opening,
the cement
facing,
the interest created in
the useful wood closet that
originally
was an oven. And note the
pleasant
absence of the wall board above the shelf which
always
Photograph and drawing bv Edgar I). Parker ai.d Edgar T P. Walker.
This old room maintains its charm in
spite
of the modern touches of an
ugly
electric fixture, radiator,
and
porcelain
knobs instead of latches.
steads we find the
present occupants
are members of the old
family
tree and that the house with its
furnishings
is a record of
over two centuries of unbroken
family
life. So we find
among
these families a true
appreciation
and a love for the beauties of
the
early
colonial architecture and furniture. And the true
atmosphere
of
many
of the
quaint
interiors is
only
marred
by
the additions
brought
about
by
the
pres'ent-day
needs of
comfort.
The
picture
shows a room not so old as
many
in the
neighbor-
ing houses, but
very interesting
from the aesthetic
point
of view.
We should note several features of
design,
the chance "creations
makes an
unpleasant change
in surface and color in the back-
ground
of
objects
on the shelf.
The doors are
very typical
but
they
are well
worthy
of
study
in the excellent
proportions
of
panels
to each other and of rails to
stiles. The
relatively
low
ceiling
is not so low as to
give any
one
a
feeling
of
oppression
and it is in this
very important
measure-
ment of
ceiling height
we find the room to be so well
propor-
tioned. The door
closing
on the
top
of the first
step
is character-
istic of this work and
may
seem to
many
to be
poor design.
But
many
others of us are
very
fond of this feature, for there is a dis-
tinct
picturesqueness
to it and a
feeling
even of mediaeval
days.
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DLTAIL5 AHL^HOWH AT HALF OF THLIILFULL
This inn,
"
The New
England
Pavern,"was
built
considerably
more than a
century ago
on the main
high
road from Boston to
the Lakes
by pioneers
to
the Western Reserve,
ami
now finds itself in the vil-
lage
of Unionville, forty
miles from Cleveland. It
stands at the
crossing
of
four roads,
and the same
old
signboard,
with its
coach and four, hanging
from the same hand-
wrought
iron
support,
that
welcomed the tired
way-
farer in the
stage
coacn
now cheers the travelers
by
automobile.
When
good
roads and
automobiles
brought
new
life to this old
inn, fortun-
ately
those who were in-
terested in its restoration
were not interested
chiefly
in the commercial side of
the
enterprise.
The re-
modeling
of the inn was
done
slowly
under the su-
pervision
of one who had
a real
knowledge
of the fit-
ness of
things
and unusual
discrimination. Not a line
of the fine old house was
changed.
It stands
to-day
ihe same
severely plain
yellow-and-white
colonial
house of a
century ago.
A NEW ENGLAND INN IN OHIO
BY
ROSAMOND
WHITE
HUNTER
Acentraldoorleads
from the
porch
into
the
parlor
which is
bright
with
gay
chintz
hangings
and braided
rugs, gilt birdcages,
and vases of fresh
flowers. The tall clock
was
brought
from Bos-
ton to Unionville
by
ox-wagon
one hun-
dred and
thirty-eight
years ago by
the briile
of a
pioneer.
There
are
many
handsome
pieces
of old
mahog-
any
in the
living-room
and in the other
rooms, rich with the
coloring
which
only
time can
give.
Not
only
has the at-
tic of the inn
yielded
up
its treasures,
spinet, beds, chairs,
and tables, but the
village people
have
given
some of their
dearest
personal pos-
sessions. Iftherewere
two cherished chairs
in the
family,
the old
tavern received one.
And then, to
express
the
appreciation
of
the town as a
whole,
a handsome silver
punch-bowl
was
bought by general
subscription by
the
villagers
and senl to
adorn the best room
of the Inn.
SMALL-HOUSE DETAILS
Types
of colonial
interiors,
showing diversity
of
possible
effects.
Corner
cupboards
are
typical
of old colo-
nial
dining-rooms.
In most cases, they
ex-
tend to the
ceiling ; when
they
do not, they
offer an excellent shelf for the
larger pieces
of old china or
plate.
The color scheme of a room
may
center in the
draperies.
In this bedroom, the
rug
and two-tone
paper
afford a neu-
tral
background
for the cretonne curtains.
This
kitchenette, which
opens directly
into the
living-room
shown at the bottom of
the
page,
has an
arrangement
of shelves
that
might
be
adapted
for use in a small-
house kitchen.
The
living-room
of the
house in which is the
dining-
room in the
opposite picture.
The mantel was made to order
for fifteen dollars. The fire-
place facing
is of concrete
painted.
Admirable
simplicity
was
ingeniously
obtained in this
dining-room
with
paneling
of
painted plaster.
The door is
a
cheap
stock door turned
upside
down to
gain
distinc-
tion.
This hall is more architectural in char-
acter than are
any
of the other rooms shown
here. The hall and
adjoining
rooms are
on
axis, that
is, they present
vistas.
A
charmingly simple
room in an old house on Beacon
Street, Boston. The Franklin stove somehow adds more to
the
quaint antiquity
of the room than would an
open
fire-
place.
The
pine-tree twigs
in the vase under the mirror
become
part
of what an artist would call a
"
composition."
This mirror, table, lamp,
and chair are
placed
in such relation to each other that
they
make a
very
restful
spot
for the
eye
to
linger upon.
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The influence of
Chi|>pendale
in his
Chinese
period
is
shown in the lat-
tice-like
design
of
this detail of the
balustrade.
This
flat-topped
newel
post,
com-
pos,
d of a circular
curve of the rail is
a
Logical
and
lovely
conclusion of the
long
line of the
rail from the third
story
Stairway
in the Pierce-Johonnot-Nichols
house in Salem,
Massachusetts, built
by
Samuel Mclntire in 1782. The
window at the first
landing
is
very lovely.
Windows of
this
type
are called Palladian because
they
are character-
istic of the work of Andrea Palladio, an Italian architect
of the sixteenth century.
CENTURY-OLD STAIRWAYS WELL WORTH COPYING
This
stairway,
and tin
1
ones on the
opposite page,
are all from north-
ern colonial houses of the last
quarter
of the
eighteenth century, except
one, which was built in 1805.
They
have a
simplicity
and
elegance
that
is an
inspiration
to
any
one about to build. It is, of course, very
diffi-
cult to make an exact
reproduction
of
any part
of a fine old house, but
fine old houses, like all beautiful
objects,
are invaluable because of the
feeling
of admiration and emulation
they
awaken in ihe beholder. In
the case of the
stairway
on this
page,
for instance, we
get
an idea
of the
gracefulness
that is
possible
in the
customary
narrow
stairway
running up
one side of the
customary
narrow hall. If we
imagine
this
stairway
as a line
dropped
from the side of the wall in the third
storv down to its final curve at the newel
post,
it
helps
us to visualize
This
photograph gives
an idea of the third floor and the
charming
hall
sitting-room
at the south.
The
stairway
at ihe second
story, showing
the
graceful
turn on the
landing.
with what firm and continuous
suavity
the three stories of
the house are held
together.
Think of the
stairway
in
your
new house as a
continuing
and
ascending
line and
see whether
you
do not
begin
to feel
unexpected
chances
for
beauty.
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Staircase, Cabot-Lee-Kilham house, Beverly, Mass., 1773. The boxed
understair treatment is seldom used
nowadays,
but it
may
be made
effective when the risers
carry
a continuation of the
paneling.
The
graceful
turn in the staircase in Hon. David P. Waters' home in
Salem, Mass., built
by
Mclntirr in 1805. The
long sweeping
curves
give
an effect of
height
and airiness that
approaches fragility.
In the Salem house where this staircase is, Mclntire lived for
many
years.
Built in
1770, but not
by
Mclntire. It is an excellent solu-
tion of the difficult
problem
of a
right-angled
turn in a small
compass.
A well-balanced
stairway
in a house at Jamaica Plain, Mass., built in
1803. This
landing
is as successful in its
way
as the one on the other
page, although
here the turn is affected
by angles,
not
by
curves.
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ONE END OF THE LIVING-ROOM AND LIBRARY IN THE HOME OF MR. BERTRAM
GROSVENOR GOODHUE IN NEW YORK CITY
This
library
shows the influence of the
Jacobean period.
The books fill the
long
west wall. The furniture is
English,
and
English
casement cloth is used at the casement windows which are made
exactly
like those in
many English country
houses.
The front door leads
directly
into the hall with no
intervening
vestibule. The first
impression
as we look around at
gray-brown
oak in
panelled
walls and carved
stairway,
dull red tiled floor, and dull
yellow
Chinese
rugs,
is of
quiet dig-
nity.
The hall contains but two
pieces
of furniture: a
straight
carved chair and an inlaid cabinet.
A SMALL PATIO
B v G
HOUSE DESIGNED BY A WOMAN
[: R T R U D E A P P L K T O N L U C K E Y
This house at I. a
Jolla, California, was not
only
designed by
a woman, hut was also constructed, dec-
orated and furnished under her
supervision.
It is built
around a court, or
patio
as it is called in California,
which is enclosed
by
the house on three sides.
One must
study
the
plan
as well as the
photographs
to obtain a clear
understanding
of its attractiveness
as, owing
to the brilliant masses of flowers and shrubs
in the
patio,
it is
impossible
to
get any
other exterior
view of the house than the one here shown.
One
great advantage
of this
patio arrangement
is that all the rooms have cross ventilation, the
living-
room, one bedroom, and the
sleeping-porch having
ventilation on three sides and, by
clever
planning,
all
of the rooms have French drors
opening
on to the
patio.
The
frontage
of the house is
forty-one feet,
the
depth sixty-two
feet and the
patio
is
twenty-four
by twenty-five
feet.
From the liberal sized entrance
porch
with its
substantial
pergola,
we enter the
living-room,
finished
in California redwood in its natural color a soft
reddish brown. The
hangings
are brown; the frieze
and
ceiling
a
light
cream.
Four French windows
open
from the
dining-room
on to the
patio
and a
charming
view; in the
opposite
side is a
group
of windows above the built-in buffet
The
dining-room
woodwork is in old
ivory
enamel
and the walls are tinted. The hardware and electric
light
fixtures are hammered brass and the stencilled
curtains are a dull shade of
yellow.
From the
living-room
a small
hallway
leads to a
sleeping-porch bedroom, illustrated here. This room,
with its
private bathroom, large
closet and built-in
dresser, forms a
complete
suite in itself. The
living-
room is
heavily
insulated so as to cut off all
passage
of
sound between these rooms. The woodwork is
finished in old
ivory
enamel and the walls are tinted a
light
shade.
From the
dining-ioom,
a
hallway
leads to the three
bedrooms and the bathroom. All these rooms are
finished in old
ivory
enamel. Two of the bedrooms
have French doors
opening
on the
patio
and all have
a
generous
number of windows. One of the rooms
is fitted with a
disappearing bed, half of which slides
under the linen
press
in the bathroom, the other hall
forming
a couch in the room so that the room can be
used as a den if desired.
The charm of the exterior of this house is centered
around the
patio,
but the other elevations are
equally
pleasing.
The
shingled
walls are stained
light gray,
the
woodwork
painted white, a combination of color that
makes an excellent
background
for
foliage
and flowers.
Placed close under trees on the
edge
of a
clearing,
as
if it had sat down to rest in the shade.
The
living-porch.
The window at the
right
is in the
bathroom, which is finished in tile-hoard.
GUEST HOUSE
A LITTLE SUMMER HOME OF WALL-BOARD AS COMPLETE AS IT JS SIMPLE
A neat and attractive small kitchen like this, tucked
away
under the
slope
of the roof was made
possible by
the use of wall-board.
Open
shelves serve as a closet.
.... _ _ - - _ - - -
:
,
The
panel strips
of the wall-hoard are
painted
the same color as the
panels,
thus
making
the
paneling inconspicuous,
with the result that the
room
appears larger.
In the
living-room
the wall-board is used in wide
panels
and the roof
construction is left in the
rough.
A
living-
and
dining-porch
with all the comforts of a
larger
house. The
couches increase the chances for
hospitality.
The
array
of
wedding presents
on this sideboard
gives
the top a cluttered The same
sideboard,
its true
dignity brought
out
by
the central
placing
of
appearance,
and the
tray
underneath mars the
delicacy
of the outline. the lacquered box, flanked
by
a
pair
each of decanters and candlesticks.
This sideboard top presents
an
example of
objects arranged
in balanced rela- A choice of
objects
selected with regard
to the mass and outline of the
tion to each other,
but without
regard
to the mass and contour of sideboard. sideboard. The
tray
and candlesticks
give height
without heaviness.
A most unusual and
charming
solution of the difficult
prolilrm
of the
boxed-in staircase has been obtained
by shortening
the stair
length
to a
couple
of feet less than the level of the second floor.
A
hospitable doorway
which
augments
the entrance hall,
being
in itself
almost a
tiny
room. The broad
clapboards
of the house and the
twenty-
four
panes
in the window add much to the
apparent age
of the house.
The
furnishings
of this house are much above the
average.
The tables and chairs in the
living-room
are based on
good
models and are restrained
copies
of these. The
arrangement
of
easy-chairs
and
reading-table
in a semi-circle at one side of the
fireplace
is unusual and
inviting.
This is a true small house,
as
may
be seen
by
the
plan,
but there
is,
neither
inside nor outside, a sense of constriction.
Good small house detail in the interior trim, the
mantel,
and the
simple,
well-chosen
furnishings.
"WEE
HOOSE,"
DR. G. H. HILLMAN'S
Robert Sherlock of
Type
:
"
Wee Hoose
"
is a
two-and-a-half-story cottage
built on old-
fashioned farmhouse lines.
Number
of
Rooms: Seven rooms and bath.
Material : Outside Wide
clapboards painted
white with
green
slatted
shutters above stairs and white wooden ones below.
Shingle
roof. The
floor of the
porch
is cement and the
posts
stucco. These are undesirable
as to
type
of house, but on account of
durability
it was advisable to use
them. Interior
-
The trim was
especially designed
for this
type
of cot-
tage
and was more economical than the usual mill-stock both in initial
cost and the
subsequent expenditure
of time
necessary
to
keep
it clean.
AH the trim is
absolutely plain
with the
exception
of a few
mouldings
used on the
mantelpiece.
The first-floor
flooring
is of oak; the second is of
maple.
Decoration : The woodwork
throughout
is
painted
a soft cream color.
The sidcwalls are
papered
with oatmeal
paper
in soft tones of
gray
and
buff. Bath and
serving-room
are
painted
a
light yellow.
Ilarilii'are: Black iron. The latches were found in stock, but all
hinge
plates
and the entire
equipment
for front door were hand hammered
by
an ironworker in Plainfield. There are three kinds of
hinges
used : H
and L. Ace of
Spades,
and
Strap.
Ural: The house is heated
by
a hot-air furnace; a boiler in the cellar
connected with the furnace
supplies
an abundance of hot water. In
summer, the water is heated
by
a
gas
heater attached to the boiler.
A
gas range only
is used for
cooking
in the kitchen.
First-floor
plan.
A let-in china closet of the
simplest design.
Notice the rounded
moulding
at
the bottom of the base-board,
and the extreme
plainness
of the
door-casing.
An attractive use is here made of a easement window on the south
side of the
upper hallway.
The balustrade is in excellent
keeping.
COTTAGE, PLAINFIELD,
MEW JERSEY
New
York,
Architect
Cost:
Including
extras such as
papering
and
painting, picket
and wire
fences, electric fixtures, hardware, and window shades, the house cost
approximately $5000.
Some of the features of the
cottage
are : An enclosed
stairway
with
entrance as near the front door as
possible.
Wooden
pegs
for
wraps
are used in this entrance. A few of these
pegs
came out of an old Rev-
olutionary
farmhouse on Green Brook
Road, and we used these as a
pattern
for others which we had made.
A let-in
cupboard
for old china in the
dining-room.
A linen closet built in
compartments
with front of drawers which let
down
by
means of chains. This
arrangement
has
proved
a
great
conveni-
ence ill
sorting
linen. There is also a coat-closet off the
living-room.
Some
eighteen
or
twenty
shelves were built in the
cottage,
those in
bedrooms and
living-room being
used for books, while the one under
the southern casement window in the
upper
hall is used for
plants.
The window sashes in
living-
and
dining-rooms
are divided two-thirds
of the
way up
like the windows in the old
Wayside
Inn at
Sudbury,
Massachusetts. The whole house is set low. there
being only
one
step
from the
ground
to the
porch,
and when trees, shrubs, and vines are
planted,
it will
present
a
very
attract
the
cottage
but six
months, very
litt
line. Pink rambler roses will be tr
English ivy
has been
planted
at the b
tilation of the
cottage
is
unusually g.
ve
appearance. Having
lived in
has been
accomplished
in this
ined on the several lattices, and
sc of the
porch pillars.
The ven-
3 E J> $ ED R.OOW
9-4"|j'-D" I
Second-floor
plan.
The rear of the house,
showing
the French windows in the
living-room,
one
end of the kitchen
entry,
and an adorable collie.
A corner of the
living-room
beside the front door. The bookshelves are
most
inexpensive, yet
how
good-looking
!
The
porch opens directly
into the
living-room,
but is in itself both
an
entry
and an outdoor
living-room.
In this
bedroom, shelves are
again
used
advantageously.
The H-and-L
hinges
and the latch
give
distinction to this
plainest
of doors.
This
dining-room
is
very simple,
almost
severe,
in its architecture. Observe how the rich
Grinling-Gibbons-like carving
and the furniture stand out
by
contrast. Tone and color are lost in the
photograph.
It is unfortunate that the black and white of the
photograph
can
give but litle idea of the harmonious richness of this room.
The color values are
distorted,
and the colors themselves,
of
course,
in the furniture and
rugs,
in the
tapestries
and
ceiling
(painted by
Mr. Robert S.
Chase),
are
entirely
lost.
An
example
of the free and sure use
together
of details which are not of the same
period
or even the same place or
origin.
The mantel and over mirror are after the manner of the Brothers Adam of
England,
while the screen and
settees are of the French school. The severe architectural lines of the Adam pieces
are contrasted with the curves
of the French work.
The
sharp
contrast between
furnishings
and walls
apparent
in this
picture is due to the
great
amount of
light
in the room
when the
photograph
was taken. The
viewpoint crowds the furniture
against
forced
backgrounds,
but the pieces
can be
examined
individually
with much benefit.
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Se..
ELLVATION OF MANTEL,
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?LA>J OF JLooM
SCALE, t
o I. ?. Z -4 G
Library
in the William Lincoln Mouse, Hingham,
Massachusetts. Work dates about 1700.
Drawing and photograph by Edgar T. P. Walker and Edgar b. Parker